Brooding.

One thing absolutely bloody guaranteed to snap me out of some introspective episode is weather like this (what we've had over Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Staffs for the last couple of days).

I love big weather. I will sacrifice hours if I can get underneath a thunderstorm. One of the greatest days I ever spent was meandering across the Severn Vale one Sunday, chasing huge Anvil-shaped cumulonimbus clouds and then diving out of the car to get pelted with hail and blasted until my nose ached agonisingly.

It's an ambition of mine to be present in a hurricane/ typhoon. That may seem a flippant thing to say considering the misery they can cause, but I have a need to see just how brutal a combination of such ephemeral things (water vapour, heat and pressure) can get.

Mother Nature; for the millionth time I doff the cap. Please keep assaulting me with beauty.